LJ Idol Week 4: The Sin Eater
Nov. 3rd, 2026 03:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chasing_silverI joined the Lighthouse Keepers' Association sixty years ago. I’m the last living lighthouse keeper who lives on property. Now, the light is computerized, but I remember when it wasn’t. The huge bulbs, stacked in the oil house. The weatherbeaten door that was almost impossible to open in a gale. No help from any government or Coast Guard. Just me and the storms, out there on the point in Rhode Island.
Just me and survival.
They said there was a monster who ate babies, then. I used to laugh. What monster could survive on those rocks? And yet every year there was a story of a girl who disappeared, who never was seen or heard from again.
Fairy tales, I scoffed. I’ve been up there on the clearest night. There’s no monster waiting for anyone there. More like a boyfriend with a boat down at the beach, maybe. Not any old dinosaur or sea serpent.
But it was always a girl you wouldn’t expect. And it was always a girl who you suspected knew something else.
And of course, it was always a girl with a baby she didn’t want. The Sin Eater takes care of that, said the locals. That creature will take care of that.
It wasn’t no monster. I can tell you that.
//~//
Sadie fell pregnant in the last year of the war. Everyone wanted to say it was a soldier.
“If only,” Sadie muttered. “If only it was someone I knew would come back.”
It wasn’t a soldier. It was a fisherman from the town over. He took her one night after a summer clambake when everyone’d had too much whiskey and too much rationed sugar they’d all saved for the treats. Sadie couldn’t even see his face. She would never have been able to pick him out of a crowd. And honestly, she didn’t need to. That wasn’t the purpose of the dalliance. Not at all, and it was truly annoying that this is what had happened.
But then she started to grow. And she started to show. And everyone started to see.
And in 1945, what are you going to do with an unwanted child in a small town?
Sadie knew. Everyone knew.
She went to the lighthouse.
//~//
I was waiting for her.
“If it’s quickened, I can’t help you.” I was honest. I can’t. I won’t kill something alive like that. I won’t even try.
“It hasn’t.” She was downcast, her dark eyes on the rough floorboards of my sitting room in the base of the tower. She was pretty - young. Beautiful in a pale, moonlike way. An interesting cast to her skin - almost luminous.
“I don’t need to know your name,” I added. But I knew it. We all did. People had had their eye on Sadie Knowles for a long time. She was one of the strange ones.
She didn’t speak for a moment. “How much.” It wasn’t a question. I didn’t answer it like one.
“I don’t exactly take money.”
“So what do you want?”
“I want a sacrifice.”
“To die …. ?” The question mark trailed off and appeared after a long pause. I shook my head irritably. Already this was taking too long. The moon was on the wane. If it was going to happen, it would have to be now. I know from women’s bodies; my mother was a midwife. The next moon would be too late for her.
“Not to die. I want something you value.”
“I don’t have any real money.” Her voice was soft. I stamped my foot before I could stop myself.
“Girl. You’re not even listening. What I’m asking for has no value in our world.”
Now she looked up. Her eyes caught mine.
Who told her she shouldn’t look in my eyes? Who told her to be careful of who watches the seas up here?
“You want my soul.”
“I don’t take them all, you see. Only the ones who come to me in need.”
She should have been scared. But all she did was shrug.
“I don’t think you’ll want it, honestly.”
I smiled. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
//~//
The ocean holds its own counsel. It didn’t even splash that night when I threw the bundle over the rocks.
She didn’t flinch either, honestly. Easiest soul I’ve ever taken. Her mouth tasted so sweet. The soul flew into mine, tasting of ginger and sweet spices. The souls of the innocent are so light.
I went to my bed that night below the ever-spinning lamp. Clearest November night in years. A job well done, and I slept well.
But she was back the next day.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” I said. “And especially not in the daytime.”
“Well,” she said. Those depthless dark eyes were downcast again. “I changed my mind.”
Now I laughed loudly, long. The echoes of it bounced off the engine house nearby. “What are you talking about?”
She smiled then. But it was a strange smile … it took me a moment to put my finger on why. And then I saw …
Her tongue was forked.
“I know you’ve been doing a lot of work up here, ridding the world of stupid choices. I commend you. But I also know you don’t really do your research. And I don’t think you know the difference between a human and a changeling … do you?”
Again, a question that wasn’t really a question. And then I realized … I may have done this for a long time, but I hadn’t ever come across someone like Sadie.
“Shit.”
“Yeah, I thought you’d say that.” Her eyes began to glow. “I didn’t want a human child. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to give you anything of mine. So consider this a trade.”
I let out a long breath. Hundreds of years old and I didn’t see this coming. Stupid, stupid.
She smiled “This town has a long history of the strange ones. I’m surprised you haven’t come across this before.”
“I haven’t.” I didn’t say anything else. Of course, there had been others wanting the position. But there’s never room for two in a town like this, and what she was suggesting, that I disappear, wasn’t what I wanted, especially in return for getting rid of her changeling child.
Sadie simply smirked. “I don’t want your stupid lighthouse job. Or your guardian position. You can be sure of that.”
“I can’t be sure of anything. I didn’t even know you were a faerie.”
“That’s your own stupidity, really, considering you’re one, too. I can’t help you with that.”
“Are you going to ask me what I do want?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she walked to the edge of the tower, past the building, and to the very precipice of Watch Hill. Below, the sea swirled and heaved.
“I know what you want.” Now her voice was gentle. “You want to be done. To die.”
“After a life, of sorts.”
“You’ve had a life. You’ve done this for at least two hundred years.”
“I want to be done with the guardianship.”
She was silent. “I know. I don’t want it, though.”
“So let it lapse. They can figure out another way to deal with their sins.”
“And you want … humanity?”
Now it was my turn not to answer. I sighed. “You have to take it for a moment.”
“And then I die …”
“But you didn’t want to live your life out here, anyway.”
“No.” Sadie’s dark eyes were sad. “No. I didn’t want to ever live out here.”
I knew then I had my answer. And when I gave her the keys to the lighthouse, she took them, and then she jumped.
//~//
The Lighthouse Keepers' Association was formed sixty years ago. I joined it then, as a young man with perfect silver stars in his blue eyes - the only reminder of what I was before I became human.
No. The sea doesn’t eat babies. The girls no longer disappear over the edge of the cliff.
And it was never a dinosaur, or a sea serpent, or anything else like that.
It was just me, and now, I’m free.
This was an entry for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
therealljidol. Thank you for reading it! If you liked this, please check out the community and read and vote for the entries in the poll this week!
Just me and survival.
They said there was a monster who ate babies, then. I used to laugh. What monster could survive on those rocks? And yet every year there was a story of a girl who disappeared, who never was seen or heard from again.
Fairy tales, I scoffed. I’ve been up there on the clearest night. There’s no monster waiting for anyone there. More like a boyfriend with a boat down at the beach, maybe. Not any old dinosaur or sea serpent.
But it was always a girl you wouldn’t expect. And it was always a girl who you suspected knew something else.
And of course, it was always a girl with a baby she didn’t want. The Sin Eater takes care of that, said the locals. That creature will take care of that.
It wasn’t no monster. I can tell you that.
//~//
Sadie fell pregnant in the last year of the war. Everyone wanted to say it was a soldier.
“If only,” Sadie muttered. “If only it was someone I knew would come back.”
It wasn’t a soldier. It was a fisherman from the town over. He took her one night after a summer clambake when everyone’d had too much whiskey and too much rationed sugar they’d all saved for the treats. Sadie couldn’t even see his face. She would never have been able to pick him out of a crowd. And honestly, she didn’t need to. That wasn’t the purpose of the dalliance. Not at all, and it was truly annoying that this is what had happened.
But then she started to grow. And she started to show. And everyone started to see.
And in 1945, what are you going to do with an unwanted child in a small town?
Sadie knew. Everyone knew.
She went to the lighthouse.
//~//
I was waiting for her.
“If it’s quickened, I can’t help you.” I was honest. I can’t. I won’t kill something alive like that. I won’t even try.
“It hasn’t.” She was downcast, her dark eyes on the rough floorboards of my sitting room in the base of the tower. She was pretty - young. Beautiful in a pale, moonlike way. An interesting cast to her skin - almost luminous.
“I don’t need to know your name,” I added. But I knew it. We all did. People had had their eye on Sadie Knowles for a long time. She was one of the strange ones.
She didn’t speak for a moment. “How much.” It wasn’t a question. I didn’t answer it like one.
“I don’t exactly take money.”
“So what do you want?”
“I want a sacrifice.”
“To die …. ?” The question mark trailed off and appeared after a long pause. I shook my head irritably. Already this was taking too long. The moon was on the wane. If it was going to happen, it would have to be now. I know from women’s bodies; my mother was a midwife. The next moon would be too late for her.
“Not to die. I want something you value.”
“I don’t have any real money.” Her voice was soft. I stamped my foot before I could stop myself.
“Girl. You’re not even listening. What I’m asking for has no value in our world.”
Now she looked up. Her eyes caught mine.
Who told her she shouldn’t look in my eyes? Who told her to be careful of who watches the seas up here?
“You want my soul.”
“I don’t take them all, you see. Only the ones who come to me in need.”
She should have been scared. But all she did was shrug.
“I don’t think you’ll want it, honestly.”
I smiled. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
//~//
The ocean holds its own counsel. It didn’t even splash that night when I threw the bundle over the rocks.
She didn’t flinch either, honestly. Easiest soul I’ve ever taken. Her mouth tasted so sweet. The soul flew into mine, tasting of ginger and sweet spices. The souls of the innocent are so light.
I went to my bed that night below the ever-spinning lamp. Clearest November night in years. A job well done, and I slept well.
But she was back the next day.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” I said. “And especially not in the daytime.”
“Well,” she said. Those depthless dark eyes were downcast again. “I changed my mind.”
Now I laughed loudly, long. The echoes of it bounced off the engine house nearby. “What are you talking about?”
She smiled then. But it was a strange smile … it took me a moment to put my finger on why. And then I saw …
Her tongue was forked.
“I know you’ve been doing a lot of work up here, ridding the world of stupid choices. I commend you. But I also know you don’t really do your research. And I don’t think you know the difference between a human and a changeling … do you?”
Again, a question that wasn’t really a question. And then I realized … I may have done this for a long time, but I hadn’t ever come across someone like Sadie.
“Shit.”
“Yeah, I thought you’d say that.” Her eyes began to glow. “I didn’t want a human child. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to give you anything of mine. So consider this a trade.”
I let out a long breath. Hundreds of years old and I didn’t see this coming. Stupid, stupid.
She smiled “This town has a long history of the strange ones. I’m surprised you haven’t come across this before.”
“I haven’t.” I didn’t say anything else. Of course, there had been others wanting the position. But there’s never room for two in a town like this, and what she was suggesting, that I disappear, wasn’t what I wanted, especially in return for getting rid of her changeling child.
Sadie simply smirked. “I don’t want your stupid lighthouse job. Or your guardian position. You can be sure of that.”
“I can’t be sure of anything. I didn’t even know you were a faerie.”
“That’s your own stupidity, really, considering you’re one, too. I can’t help you with that.”
“Are you going to ask me what I do want?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she walked to the edge of the tower, past the building, and to the very precipice of Watch Hill. Below, the sea swirled and heaved.
“I know what you want.” Now her voice was gentle. “You want to be done. To die.”
“After a life, of sorts.”
“You’ve had a life. You’ve done this for at least two hundred years.”
“I want to be done with the guardianship.”
She was silent. “I know. I don’t want it, though.”
“So let it lapse. They can figure out another way to deal with their sins.”
“And you want … humanity?”
Now it was my turn not to answer. I sighed. “You have to take it for a moment.”
“And then I die …”
“But you didn’t want to live your life out here, anyway.”
“No.” Sadie’s dark eyes were sad. “No. I didn’t want to ever live out here.”
I knew then I had my answer. And when I gave her the keys to the lighthouse, she took them, and then she jumped.
//~//
The Lighthouse Keepers' Association was formed sixty years ago. I joined it then, as a young man with perfect silver stars in his blue eyes - the only reminder of what I was before I became human.
No. The sea doesn’t eat babies. The girls no longer disappear over the edge of the cliff.
And it was never a dinosaur, or a sea serpent, or anything else like that.
It was just me, and now, I’m free.
This was an entry for
therealljidol. Thank you for reading it! If you liked this, please check out the community and read and vote for the entries in the poll this week!
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Date: 2026-11-03 08:52 pm (UTC)